I seem to be having a bit of a problem with the wires breaking on either side of my solder joint. I guess I was getting the soldering iron a little bit too hot and I haven't been twisting the wires either.

Apologies for not responding quickly as RL had slammed me hard the past few weeks. Work has really picked up leaving me little time to "appear busy". This is good as my job isn't in jeopardy at the moment so, yeay me!

But it does seem though that the wire is experiencing fatigue rather than a failure of the solder joint. Here are a couple of the pics I took just to show you the situation.

This one is to get you oriented to where the solder/wire failed and the space I have in which to work.20180720_134036

This one shows the solder joint. The red heat shrink I am holding with the instrument is the resistor and the end is where the wire fatigued and broke. The other end is near the tip of the tool and it looks to be stranded.

I thought I had covered and supported the wire well enough but, as mentioned above, I didn't go the extra steps to make sure they stayed supported. Some other factors I noticed were that the resistor end doesn't give; it is a solid core wire. The wire I attempted to solder to it was stranded and very flexibile.

As I noted, the wire fatigue seems to happen at the solder joint and it doesn't seem to matter if both are stranded or both are solid core or a combination of the two; they all seem to break there.

I think I will try and reduce the styrene from the model and free up some more wire from the model in order to strip the cover back and attempt to re-solder.

Okay, so, while Mrs. MSgtUSAFRet napped yesterday, I discovered that I wouldn't be able to solder the saucer dorsal strobe wires without some serious gymnastics and cutting of the saucer, I noticed one of the green Nav lights was out.

Well, Farglecarb!

So I made the difficult decision to pop the saucer and have a lookie loo. The wires had snapped off the LED. I stripped the wire and twisted the end around the LED lead and, using the low temp setting on the soldering iron, I drew the solder to the joint. I did the same thing on the strobe leads and fixed it while I had her open. I also used some hot glue and glued the LED and solder joint to the saucer surface in an attempt to further reinforce the wire/solder joint.

Plus, if you draw a half circle underneath the LEDs, it kinda looks like a smiley face!

A few other sites have suggested stuffing cotton in there so I did that with the STBD engine. 20180731_181555

I tried to get a pic of the difference between the cotton stuffed engine and the non-cotton stuffed engine. It didn't work out too well but you might be able to tell that the Bussard collector isn't a flood light any more.
subdued20180731_181443

Ah, well. Still pressing forward.

I'm getting an itch to get this done to get to my next project - a 350 TOS E!

If I attempted the level of detail you put into painting and lighting your builds they'd take that long too. I'm just a straight OOB novice usually!

SKO, I would have been novice OOB guy, too, when I got back into the hobby a few years back. But I was inspired by a build thread I saw that heavily modified a 1/650 AMT TOS E with spectacular results. And now I can't seem to not modify or models!

Plus, I was challenged to light my models by some fellow builders - which added more time and complexity to my builds. But I enjoy it, so yeay me!

While it has been a bit since I last posted (I mean, "I fell off the front page bit since I posted" long!) So I thought I would post a few WIP shots to show you I am back at the bench.

I wanted to let you know that your encouragements have prompted me to get back to it; sooooooo....thanks! Also, work has let up enough for me to think when I get home so I can hoist myself back to the bench with half a brain!

The progress so far is coming in spurts. I am at the dreaded "putty, sand, paint, repeat - ad infinitum, ad nauseum cycle. But at least it's coming along and looking better. I have sealed the Saucer, puttied the seams and sanded them smooth. As so often happens when doing this process, the seam and putty looks terrible, rough, and not finished. But after running my fingernail over the seams and finding no divets or rough surfaces, I am confident the seam is finally done; at least until I put paint on it!

This is showing the dosal Hanger Deck area and blinking light area. (I know! My use of techincal terms is Astounding!) As you can see, sainding this area was made more difficult by trying not to break the FO off. So far I've succeeded. I am trying to be extra careful so as to not cause me extra work later.

I noticed my engine seams, the parts between the model pieces and my DLM parts, were more like gaps. I could press them closed but none of the adhesives were holding. Once I released the clamps, the seams would pop open again. I used the gorilla snot again to close them up. So far, they are holding. Despite gorilla's glue having an awful tendency to expand everywhere, I figured I could take a slow speed fissure bur to it, followed by a sanding stick, and shape it down to a more esthetic appearance. At least, that's the plan.

After I had popped open the engines to insert some cotton and diffuse the bussard collector lights, I finally put the Bussard Collectors back on. I think this will be a better look this time around. Plus, I use CA, per DLM instructions, to put them back on, so they should be more securely mounted this time! (It helps when you read the instructions!) Of course, I did another light test and all is working within normal parameters. (Didja see what I did there?! )

deckem_17 (a.k.a. Angryscifimodeler) noted that the production model of the Enterprise did not have the neck (Interconnecting Dosal (ICD)) grooves on the forward facing surface of the ship; as shown here
And it was only after searching for this picture that I noticed a small white strip running the length of the ICD; which is something I will try to duplicate in my build.

Following his lead, I smoothed out the neck; which, even when using a relatively flat fingernail file, ended up being rounded. *sigh*

In re-watching deckem_17's video of his build, I wondered why he didn't just use a single peice to cover the neck rather than two peices. Well, I found out that I couldn't get an equal "showing" of the edge in profile without the two peices to manipulate. So I split the single peice I had and adjusted the "lip" before the glue set. I still got some spillage but I think this will be not show. Besides, I didn't want to spread the glue any further. I am hoping to pick it away once it is dry.

Oh, man! Slow and steady, you'll get this knocked out of the park!! Fantastic job so far.
My E-C got knocked over some months ago and subsequently lost its internal power mount in the belly, but I recently managed to safely prise off the deflector dish so I may be able to salvage the workings. Between that and the much earlier run in with a massive plasma storm (candle) that deformed a good 1/2 inch portion of the saucer bulkhead, I think she's long overdue for a drydock. I'm definitely living vicariously through your build here.